A few necessary components of this Bengals draft were known entering the weekend. They needed to add youth at cornerback. They accomplished that with first-round pick Darqueze Dennard. They needed to solidify the defensive line with loss of Michael Johnson. Third-round pick Will Clarke adds the rangy, athletic end role Johnson vacated.

With the open, variable picks, however, a significant theme emerged. The Bengals want to run. They want do so with power.

The picks fall in line with a theme of the transition from offensive coordinator Jay Gruden to Hue Jackson. Jackson and Marvin Lewis preached re-dedication to the running game. This places less onus on the arm of Andy Dalton to decide the outcome of games.

Second-round pick Jeremy Hill adds a 233-pound bruising power punch to pair with Giovani Bernard. Fourth-round pick Russell Bodine brings one of the most powerful centers in the class. The team instantly targeted fullbacks in the undrafted free agency period. Converted 250-pound Wake Forest defensive lineman Nikita Taylor could make a physical impact.

"You've got to keep putting pieces in place in order to do the things you feel you need to do to play winning football," Lewis said.

The Bengals 3.6 yards per carry last year ranked 27th in the NFL. Marvin Lewis has never averaged less than that as head coach and that marked the worst rushing ranking since 2008. BenJarvus Green-Ellis averaged 3.4 yards per carry, his career low. The power rush up the middle needed a jolt. No player will make a larger impact on the 2014 Bengals than Hill.

"He knows how to run the power play," Jackson said. "He knows how to run downhill. He's a physical runner. We're adding another really quality football player to that running back room which I think is really good right now. I don't think you can ever have too many of them."

WHERE DO THEY FIT?: The depth of the Bengals roster means fewer spots for these eight draft picks to land. Any that do make the team will be displacing players who were a part of the Bengals plan.

Cincinnati is expected to receive two compensatory picks — likely in the third and/or fourth rounds — next season for the losses of Michael Johnson and Anthony Collins in free agency. Such will create even fewer open spots.

"We've had a lot of picks over the last three years, we've had a hard time with how to digest all these players into the roster," Lewis said. "That's difficult. Over the last two years with 10 and 11 picks, whatever we had the last two seasons prior to this draft. That's a lot of players."

DRAFTING VS. FREE AGENCY: Criticism came in droves of the Bengals lack of activity in free agency. They didn't go after any of the major free agents from opposing teams, rather choosing to focus on eventually signing extensions of their own players and drafting well.

For Lewis, the philosophy plays out advantageously on multiple levels.

"I think if you continue to draft young players, you don't have to go out there and get into changing somebody else's habits," he said. "Because when we bring somebody new in here, a veteran player from somewhere else … they have a difficult transition; it's a four, five, six-week transition. It's better to grow them from the ground up and letting them mature and do their thing into your role."

The philosophy also allows for more extensions as rewards for maturing into said role. While the Bengals haven't reached near the salary cap yet this offseason, Lewis reassured those contracts are coming.

"Everybody in the NFL knows how the salary cap works," Lewis said. "We have some young guys that are going to take huge chunks of our salary cap coming here very quickly. So that's the other part of it. We've taken care of ours. We'll continue to take care of ours. That's the way I want us to truly continue to build our football team."